The Israeli Volunteer Association invited the volunteers from the general secular -, youth at-risk and international department to a special event: The IVA-Volunteer Day – this year located in the Ramat Aviv Loona Park.
On the one hand, this day is meant being a ‘thank you’ to all young adults who decided to spend a period of their life for volunteering and helping other individuals within the Israeli Society. On the other hand, the Volunteer Day provides a unique opportunity to bring all volunteers together for a
social and cultural exchange.

The International Department of the Israeli Volunteer Association decided to benefit from this occasion and to create a seminar day out of this opportunity for the International volunteers.

Goal of the seminar
The International Volunteers gain knowledge about the Israeli Volunteer Association as an organization beyond the International Department.
The International Volunteers go into different dialogues with Israeli volunteers and staff members of
the Israeli Volunteer Association – providing several narratives and perspectives according to the topic of volunteerism on an individual and organizational level.

Program and methodology
The seminar started with a picknick in Park Hayarkon (Ramat Aviv), close to the Loona Park. During breakfast Ofri Raviv (Manager of the Development Division, Israeli Volunteer Association) and Keren Pardo (Manager International Department, Israeli Volunteer Association), introduced the volunteers to the history, the goals and the achievements of the Israeli Volunteer Association.

This lecture provided an overview about theoretical knowledge that guided and gave advantages for the next seminar activity: The Volunteer Rallye.
Beforehand, the volunteers were able to split up into small groups (up to six) by themselves. After the lecture, these groups received a folder with different tasks and missions they had to work on during the time in the Loona Park. This activity was methodologically chosen to give the volunteers
the opportunity for a more flexible time management, self-activeness and exclusive time within the small groups.
The Rallye included different tasks and missions:

– Group activities: Choosing a creative group name, taking a creative group picture and managing to build the words “Peace” and “Volunteerism” out of a puzzle of prepared
Hebrew letters.

– Intercultural Dialogue with Israeli Volunteers: Part of the Rallye was to interview three different Israeli Volunteers who are serving in different fields: administration, health and
education. The interview included the different motivation for deciding doing the volunteer service, their experiences so far, what they learned and what challenges they are facing.

– Personal Interchange with a staff member of the Israeli Volunteer Association: The volunteers were asked to interview one staff member to receive a personal narrative of
employees, additionally to the staff they know already from the International Department.

– Individual discussion with a field coordinator: Furthermore, the volunteers were asked to have a discussion with one field coordinator in terms of their perception of the work:
challenges and what they like most. In return, the coordinator was also able to interview the volunteers about their motivation and experiences so far.

The volunteers started with the Rallye after an official welcoming of Yaron Lutz (CEO Israeli Volunteer Association) and other representatives of different departments. The
nesset member Hilik Bar thanked all the volunteers (Israeli and International) for their services and individual efforts to
contribute personal skills, time and resources to the Israeli society. Although this welcoming was mostly in Hebrew a special announcement was made in English to introduce everybody to the International volunteers and to portray the connection and belonging to the programs and departments of the Israeli Volunteer Association.